Half-term activities in West Yorkshire: New festival celebrating Calderdale as 'fungi equivalent of the Amazon rainforest'
A new festival celebrating Calderdale as home to some of the most threatened fungi in the world is launching this month.
The National Trust says around 120 species of ancient grassland fungi can be found in pastures around West Yorkshire – many of them vulnerable due to habitat loss.
It set up the Ancient Grassland Project in 2021 to help protect these fungi’s remaining habitats and will be marking this work with the Fungi Festival.
Taking place during half-term and beyond, it will include a mixture of art, crafts and mushroom foraging walks at Hardcastle Crags near Hebden Bridge.
It will also see Gibson Mill host Ancient Underlands – a free exhibition of works from over 40 artists curated by ceramicist Katie Bates, who was inspired by the work of the Ancient Grassland Project.
“When I saw the mushrooms, I just knew this was something I had to do,” she said.
“The visual material is amazing: these fungi are beautiful. Plus, there are the weird shapes, textures, smells and fantastic names – powdercap strangler, deceptive earthtongue.”
Over the past three years, Calderdale mycologist Steve Hindle, who heads up the Ancient Grassland Fungi project, has surveyed 385 hectares of pasture and found 119 fungi species – three of them new to science.
Around a third of these species are listed as vulnerable, and two as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list – making them as rare as snow leopards.
“If snow leopards could be found in a field outside Hebden Bridge, you would have people clamouring to see them,” said Steve.
“But grassland fungi are still poorly understood compared to other species and there is very little statutory protection for them.
“Calderdale is our fungi equivalent of the Amazon rainforest. We want to shine a light on how amazing these fungi are. If they go extinct we might never know what we’ve lost.”
The National Trust’s Fungi Festival 2024 will be held at Hardcastle Crags from October 26 until December 22.
For details on all the events and activities it will involve, visit the Hardcastle Crags events page at https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/yorkshire/hardcastle-crags/events .